Beach Cities Health District Will Vaccinate South Bay Educators

REDONDO BEACH, CA — South Bay educators can start getting vaccinated beginning this week at Beach Cities Health District.

The new vaccination site will open this week at BCHD’s AdventurePlex, 1701 Marine Ave., Manhattan Beach. It will specifically operate to vaccinate employees of area School Districts and select charter schools.

The L.A. Department of Public Health and L.A. County Office of Education determined BCHD’s location would vaccinate educators and staff in Service Planning Area 8. It's considered a POD, or point of dispensing, according to Beach Cities Health District.

The following districts are included in the POD:

• Centinela Valley Unified High School District
• El Segundo Unified School District
• Hawthorne Unified School District
• Hermosa Beach City School District
• Inglewood Unified School District
• Lawndale Unified School District
• Lennox Unified School District
• Manhattan Beach Unified School District
• Palos Verdes Unified School District
• Redondo Beach Unified School District
• Wiseburn Unified School District

"Right now L.A. County Department of Public Health has allocated BCHD’s site vaccines for educators only," BCHD told Patch. "We will definitely update you if we learn more."

Vaccine doses will be set aside for early childcare education, private and independent schools through restricted educator appointments at county-run vaccination sites.

“We have been able to build a great partnership with Beach Cities Health District and they are going to do the important work vaccinating our South Bay teachers and school staff,” said County Supervisor Janice Hahn. “This is good news for teachers, parents, and our kids. If it was ever up for debate before, this pandemic has made it clear that our teachers are essential, and we need them back in classrooms.”

“We are pleased to partner with the L.A. County Department of Public Health, Supervisor Janice Hahn, the City of Manhattan Beach and our school districts on our vaccination site that will allow local educators to get the COVID-19 vaccine,” said Tom Bakaly, CEO of Beach Cities Health District. “Our team, including many volunteers, will use the lessons learned from administering more than 135,000 COVID-19 tests at our Redondo Beach site to make this vaccine site efficient and effective. We are ready to vaccinate our educators as promptly as possible. Vaccines are an additional tool in the fight against COVID-19 in addition to physical distancing, wearing face masks correctly, washing our hands and avoiding crowds. We’re going to need to use all available tools to get through this pandemic together.”

BCHD plans to continue offering COVID-19 tests at the BCHD campus at 514 N Prospect Ave. For information on COVID-19 testing, health-related referrals or assistance, visit bchd.org/coronavirus or call 310-374-3426, ext. 256.

Other closed pod locations are starting to spring up, including one at Cal State Long Beach, where only university employees and students will receive the COVID vaccine.

People who are 65+ are part of Phase 1A, and have been able to get vaccinated in the county by making an appointment online (use the link below).

Starting Monday, those who work in education and childcare, food and agriculture, and first responders and law enforcement all included in Phase 1B, Tier 1 are eligible and can schedule a free COVID-19 vaccine appointment on the website:http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/acd/ncorona2019/vaccine/hcwsignup/.